Avatar: The Way of Water' surpasses $1.4 billion at the global box office

Prior to the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, director James Cameron stated that if the film would be a success, they would know only around the third weekend. "You won't know the first weekend," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "Titanic didn't work that way. Avatar didn't work that way.

" And he was right; Both films were canceled prior to release, and their relatively quiet openings failed to inspire confidence. But they went on to become blockbusters of all time, cementing Cameron as the undisputed king of the box office. And now that The Way of Water has been in cinemas for three weekends, the verdict is as good as out. People enthusiastically agreed with him, despite what you've heard about the franchise's lack of memes and cultural relevance.

With $444 million at the domestic box office and $956 million in overseas markets, The Way of Water's Global Booty is now a whopping $1.

401 billion. The film actually showed a 6% improvement over the previous weekend, earning $66.8 million compared to the $63.3 million it earned the second weekend.

Cameron was right; his films tend to go their own way at the box office.

In an age where large tent poles are mostly front-loaded, The Way of Water simply refuses to tip over. This can be attributed to a total lack of competition, but also to the fact that, like most of Cameron's films, the film has re-run value.

The first Avatar opened in 2009 with relatively low sales - earning around 77 million dollars in its opening weekend before showing phenomenal legs over the holiday and into 2010, eventually ending its run as the highest-grossing

film of all time. It beat another Cameron hit, Titanic, to number one. Add in the many millions it's made from re-releases over the years, and the final balance sheet for the first avatar is $785 million domestically and $2.9 billion worldwide.

The Way of Water has a clear path ahead of it, at least until Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February, which means a $2 billion-plus finale isn't out of the question can be. You can watch our interview with producer Jon Landau here and keep an eye on Collider for more updates.